Have we mentioned the market is hot right now? In case you haven’t been following, those of us in Real Estate have been talking a lot about the ongoing trends of surging home prices and high sales numbers. In our own blog at the end of April we reported that home prices had just seen their largest gains in nine years.

Now sales data from May has come out confirming that not only are prices the highest since 2007, so are the number of homes sold. Total existing home sales were up 4.5 percent from May of 2015 which took us to our highest annual pace since February of ‘07. And prices continued up with gains of 4.7% over May of last year.

Inventories of available homes are still low, as we’ve talked about all year so far, but it looks like the homebuilders are making gains as they ramp up summer building - a good thing because with demand like we’re seeing right now, we’ll continue to need more homes to sell moving forward to keep these prices to a stable growth rate.

With this month just about coming to a close, we don’t yet have all the sales data for June, but we do know a couple key things. The median home listing price in June is up 8% over a year ago, which is great news for sellers, and luckily the historically low interest rates are making up for much of the price increase for buyers. Also, the average time on the market this June is projected to be 65 days - down a bit from last year. Homes are selling for more, and selling faster too.

When we do get the final June sales numbers, we expect the market will continue to see strong growth. All signs point to a sustained increase in both prices and sales through the rest of this year. If the interest rates stay as low as they are, or near these levels, it will keep giving help to the market. And the fact that current homeowners continue to benefit from increased equity is driving sales as well. First time buyers are making up only about 30% of sales right now, but homeowners sitting on the most equity they’ve had in a long time seem to be looking to upgrade or buy investment properties. If these trends continue, things should stay summer-hot for a while.

If you’re interested in buying or selling this summer, look for more info about summer sales coming in our next blog, or contact us today with any of your questions or needs!